According to the Conservatives, 'speed cameras are costing millions and undermining road safety'. Safe Speed couldn't agree more - we've been making the point for years.

We don't agree with the Conservative's choice of figures - the overall cost of the speed camera partnerships in 2005/6 was £99,524,900 - approximately 100 million pounds.

Policy has squandered major life-saving resources on a minor safety factor at every level in our road safety system:

- Government is far too focused on the speed limit - a focus that didn't appear until speed cameras came along.

- Local authorities are far too focused on vehicle speeds 'speeding' when they should be paying proper attention to engineering a safer road environment.

- Police are far to focused on 'speeding' when their most important focus should be rogue drivers.

- Drivers are far too focused on the speedo and the speed limit, when they should be more focused on selecting a safe and appropriate speed for the road environment."

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "We are absolutely certain that speed cameras make road safety worse. The last decade's road safety results are nowhere near as good as expected. Nationally we have been neglecting driver quality which is the true key to improving road safety through policy. And of course we have not Policed the roads properly, so there are 'rogue drivers' everywhere."

"We won't get road safety back on track until speed cameras have been scrapped."

"According to Department for Transport figures, only 5% of injury crashes involve any vehicle exceeding a speed limit."

"Department for Transport may claim that the huge cost should not be of concern because it has been paid by 'speeding motorists' - but we are all 'speeding motorists' - the money has been taken from ordinary people and wasted on speed cameras. It cannot be spent on other road safety measures."